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	Disasters - Names		Disasters - Names

Date:	14th October 1860
Colliery:	Stubley
Company:	Kellett and Co.
Cause:	Explosion of firedamp
Lives Lost:	1
Category:

Accident No. 29 in the Tabular List.

Explosion of fire-damp at Stubley Colliery, near Leeds.

This misfortune furnishes another proof of the absolute necessity for invariably locking safety lamps, whenever and wherever they may be used.

On the first introduction of lamps into this pit the uniform practice was to lock them ; but by slow degrees the under-viewer relaxed the discipline so far as to cease locking them entirely, and even to treat with impunity and indifference the hazardous experiment of unscrewing the lamp top in the works: the natural consequence was that both men and lads were often guilty of this serious offence.

Under the influence of such bad training and worse example, it is not at all surprising that the unlucky and misguided boy (Robert Spencer) got burnt to death by heedlessly carrying his open lamp into an unfenced place containing inflammable gas.

Moreover, the under-viewer had bestowed so little care or trouble on the ordinary ventilating contrivances of the mine, that although the spot where the fatal fire arose immediately adjoined the regular tramway and main air-course, yet gas had been permitted to lurk there for several days without the slightest effort being made by him to expel it.

The furnace was not properly attended to, the stoppings were defective, the principal air-way had only a single and unchecked door, and places known to be fiery were neither barred off nor guarded by "danger-signals."

It was therefore incumbent on me publicly to expose such culpable misconduct and mismanagement; legal proceedings were thereupon taken against the under-viewer (Richard Kaye) for his neglect of the special rules, and the Dewsbury magistrates levied on him penalties and costs amounting to nearly £7.

Source: 1860 Mines Inspectors Report, Yorkshire District, by Charles Morton, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 7

	Spencer, Robert, aged Boy, Explosion of firedamp
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